UCLA has played 29 basketball games this season, of which only 55 percent were victories—and zero percent were home games.

Officially, the Bruins were listed in the home side in 18 of those games, which is true in the sense their athletic department picked the site, sold the tickets, handled the game management.

There was no homecourt advantage whatsoever in these games, however, the majority of which have been contested at LA’s decrepit Sports Arena—a building closer to USC’s campus geographically, and to the 1860s aesthetically.

Homecourt is a pretty big deal in college basketball, but UCLA has had to do without this season as Pauley Pavilion is renovated—reconstructed might be a better word—and the Bruins attempt to move forward into the 21st century.

FROM SI.COM

Some people don’t feel that’s worth a mention in discussing why UCLA is enduring its second poor season in the past three under coach Ben Howland. But it’s a factor.

What is surprising about the reaction to UCLA’s struggles is how much is not learned by observing the history of similar programs.

There seems to be this sense that coaches get smarter or dumber, better or worse, from year to year.

There seems not to be an understanding that what is changing annually in college basketball is the collection of players a given team fields.

In eight-plus seasons, Howland has taken UCLA to six NCAA Tournaments, three Final Fours and one championship game. He successfully worked with elite recruits Jordan Farmar, Arron Afflalo and Kevin Love in preparing them for the NBA. He also polished such underrecruited gems as Russell Westbrook, Darren Collison and Luc-Richard Mbah a Moute into significant pro players.

Some assistants who’ve worked for Howland will tell you nobody they’ve encountered has a better mind for the game, is better at assessing and exploiting a team’s weakness. And yet many in the public are reacting as though Howland forgot how to coach.

Anyone recall the climate around Duke five years ago? About that time, Jamal Boykin and Eric Boateng had been recruited and transferred out. That was not long after Michael Thompson had taken off for Northwestern, and not long before Taylor King would spin through that same revolving door.

The Blue Devils lost in the NCAA Tournament first round in 2007, in the second round in 2008 and were blown out, embarrassed, handled in the 2009 Sweet 16 by a Villanova team that wasn’t exactly awash in future NBA stars. The media attitude toward Duke, coach Mike Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils’ recruiting effectiveness was so profoundly negative during that era the university proactively worked to bolster the Blue Devils image, holding mid-summer news conferences with Coach K to give him an opportunity to correct the record.

And, in 2010, the same players whose presence on the Duke roster led to an avalanche of criticism won the school’s fourth NCAA championship.

This has been even a less glorious era at UCLA. There is no disputing this. The Bruins were 14-18 in 2010. They are 16-13 now. This is not what is expected from UCLA, but failing to recognize the circumstances that produce such struggles is only going to lead to more.

—Homecourt disadvantage. Pauley never has been an intimidating place to play. UCLA’s teams often have been overwhelming, and Walton and Wicks and the O’Bannons frightened opponents because they were great. But the vacant end zones kept the building from playing a bigger part in the Bruins’ success. That’s being repaired as Pauley is renovated.

—Recruiting. With talent along the West Coast in a downward spiral—ironically, there’ve been more McDonald’s All-Americans from Canada (five) in the past three seasons than from California (two)—UCLA was slow to react to the need to take its brand on the road. That happened in 2011, however, when Howland hired Atlanta-based Korey McCray as an assistant. McCray has experience in junior college and “AAU” basketball; he helped connect the Bruins to promising wing Jordan Adams, who signed in November, and low-post force Tony Parker, whom the Bruins still are pursuing along with Memphis, Ohio State, Kentucky Kansas, Duke, Georgetown and Georgia.

Most important, UCLA went across the country and pushed to land 6-8 point guard Kyle Anderson, one of the nation’s top prospects and the best perimeter talent to sign on with the Bruins since Baron Davis in the late 1990s. The Bruins remain a significant factor in the pursuit of the nation’s top wing talent, Shabazz Muhammad of Las Vegas, along with Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, Arizona and UNLV.

—Premature early entry. Love, Westbrook, Farmar and Afflalo left for the NBA as early draft entrants following star-level college seasons. That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about players who departed before they were terrific college players. Jrue Holiday was a year away from being a high lottery pick but left after averaging 8.5 points as a freshman.

FROM SPORTING NEWS

Malcolm Lee and Tyler Honeycutt left somewhat unexpectedly after last season. Neither had averaged even 14 points, and neither became a first-round pick. This has been the most significant factor in UCLA’s decline this season.

Perhaps the most significant obstacle to UCLA’s success, and something Howland must learn to manage if possible, is the proximity of so many LA-based agents to the Westwood campus.

It is hard to collect a steady flow of high-level talent if there already are good players on the roster; it is hard to anticipate player departures if they’re going to leave following good but not great seasons.

The one tactic that makes sense in this environment is to pursue elite talents such as Muhammad and Anderson, because it’s easy for a coach to figure when they’ll be gone—and easy to tell the next batch of recruits that those players won’t be in the way. Whoever does show up at UCLA next season will get to play in a glorious new home, a genuine home, as Pauley reopens for business. If Ben Howland is their coach, those young men also will be blessed to play for one of the best in the game.